Preview

The Minotaur Conflicting Perspectives Essay

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
983 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
The Minotaur Conflicting Perspectives Essay
“Conflicting perspectives require students to explore various representations of events, personalities or situations… Medium of production, textual form, perspective and choice of language influence meaning”

How would you feel if the man of your dreams, cheated on you, and left you for another woman? Then again, imagine what your life would be like living with someone who was mentally unstable. How would your friends, family, and possibly the general public perceive that situation? Of course they would all have opinions of their own. It is conflicting perspectives similar to these, which resonate from Ted Hughes’s ‘The Shot’ and ‘The Minotaur’ and the film ‘Sylvia’ Directed by Christine Jeffs (2003). The different representations of personalities
…show more content…
Firstly to entertain an audience comprising of the general public, it would have been dramatized and exaggerated to appeal to large numbers of people. Secondly it was created to make money. The dramatization of the story would have increased general appeal, leading to more viewers, increasing the profit. Thirdly, it was designed to show visually, through the use of cinematic techniques the conflicted story of Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath’s relationship

Hughes’s poetry on the other hand is subjective, and is an expression of his thoughts and feelings about Plath and their relationship. He uses Poetic techniques and language devices to communicate his side of the story. Through the use of personal pronouns, and the repetition of “you” we get the feeling that his poems are speaking directly to Plath, almost conversationally.

Throughout the film ‘Sylvia’, Plath is portrayed as a helpless, innocent young girl, who is corrupted by Hughes, the leading cause of her eventual demise. Jeff’s has depicted her in this way to allow the audience to emotionally connect and sympathise with her throughout the film. In the opening scenes, a tracking shot of Plath riding a bicycle, down the streets of London, with cheerful, non-diegetic music playing in the background, influences the audience to feel approval towards Plath, forging a positive bond between the

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Textual form has heavily shaped my own understanding of conflicting perspectives through the way people’s…

    • 266 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The Anonymous Minotaur

    • 204 Words
    • 1 Page

    Once upon a time, in the land of Ooo, there was a monster they called The Lich. As he left his cavern he looked down the mountainside to see a group of children from the candy kingdom all out trick or treating. The Lich sent skeleton pirates out to steal their candy. Little would they know they would be taken as well, being that they were themselves made of candy. As the skeletons closed in the kids began to shake, hearing the bushes move and twigs snap. The Lich summoned an undead Minotaur, it growled and roared as it charged after the children, they tried to run but the skeletons had jumped out and cut them off. Frightened by the undead, the candy children trembled a bald eagle came from the sky and snatched them up, taking the children…

    • 204 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    All texts are deliberately constructed to convey an agenda and a set of values. This means that every composer has a purpose, which is based on the issues arising from their context and audience. To that end, the composer uses conflicting perspectives as a vehicle for successfully conveying their purpose to the audience. So, through the representation of events, personalities and situations (which utilises form, language and structural devices), the responder is positioned to accept the perspective that the composer has represented as valid or credible. As a consequence, the composer is able to successfully impart their values to the audience. Examples of conflicting perspectives in society and the media come in the form of William Shakespeare’s…

    • 987 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Combined with the soundscape used in the movie, playing minor depressed chors whenever plath is sad or vulnerable, a perspective is constructed by the composer absolving all blame of the deterioration from Plath and placing it squarely on Hugh’s shoulders, the observed instigator of all unrest in the relationship leading to her eventual death. On the other hand, Hughes collection of poems point to two very different final perspectives. ‘Sam’s’ juxtaposition and extended metaphor of the horse create a malicious view of Plath, who as a response from the audience is perceived as the cause of the dysfunctional relationship through her overdramatic obsessive behavior. ‘Red’, however, places the blame of the disintegration of the marrige on no-one, both absolving Hughes from blame as much as Plath. While Plath is seen to cover the relationship in vile red, she is also seen as the victim of her mental state, covering herself in red to hide from her anxiety. Her fluctuating behavior is seen to be triggered by outside events such as her Fathers death, and Hughes is presented, by himself, as the hero who finally understands and forgives…

    • 1375 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    “Elm”, written about her toxic marriage to poet Ted Hughes, mainly focuses on her struggle to recover from her husband’s infidelity. However, much like many of Plath’s other pieces, elements of the poem can be interpreted as referring to her ongoing battle with depression. A prime example of Plath’s writing that can be interpreted in different ways is the line “I am terrified by this dark thing/ That sleeps in me” (“Elm” 31-32). Many choose to interpret this dark thing as her remaining love for her husband. Since the idea of love directly correlates to the overall theme of the poem, this is a popular interpretation of what the “dark thing” is referring to. However, considering Plath’s mental state at the time of writing, it can also be argued that the dark thing “sleeping” inside her is more likely the personification of her depression. Other lines in Sylvia Plath’s “Elm” reference both her heartbreak and her depression at the same time. Plath writes, “I have suffered the atrocity of sunsets”(16). By this, she means that she has had to suffer through the horrific ends of beautiful experiences. The most obvious of these beautiful sunsets that ended tragically is Plath’s marriage to Hughes. This metaphor can apply to more than just her relationship, however. It can also be applied to her life. Plath’s early life was, for…

    • 1079 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Perhaps the first thought to mind when the name Sylvia Plath is mentioned is pure ironic tragedy. What a destructive death for a woman with a seemingly jubilant life. It is know to most that she was a poet and author beyond her time, beaming with creativity and writing poetry in her early teen years. However, with longing for fame struck the bittersweet reality of holding the title for the most unfortunate life. How can it be, that a woman struck by dire occurrences, leave such an incredible mark in the guest book of all great authors and poets? It seems to be true that many a melancholy poet, tend to be of the male gender; at least those who are greatly remembered and studied. So why is Plath one…

    • 1435 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Personalities, events or situations often elicit conflicting perspectives. To what extent has textual form shaped your understanding of conflicting perspectives.…

    • 1450 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Students explore the role of textual features in the shaping of meaning in specific contexts. They develop the communication skills necessary for a wide variety of personal, social, historical, cultural and workplace contexts. Composition focuses on analysing and experimenting with textual forms characteristic of the specific contexts. These compositions may be realised in a variety of forms and media.…

    • 684 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    When speaking about Sylvia Plath a word too often use is Tragedy, the tragedy that was her life and the pain that ended it. Plath is known for her cynical twisted writing, but never too far from the truthful pain no one dared to speak about. Plath was far more than just a sad woman who made it an art form. Plath was more than other women on the Ted Hughes list of accomplishments, she was a literary genius and was a face of a movement that 50 years later is still worthy of praise. Sylvia Plath should be known for not only her literary accomplishments but the voice she created for women too not only speak about the unspeakable but to be open about the serious nature of mental illness. Sylvia Plath’s suicide is said to have overshadowed…

    • 827 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Conflicting Perspectives

    • 1233 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Hughes accusingly refers to Plath as “you”, and utilises high modality language such as “exaggerated” in “Fulbright Scholars” to convey the negative aspects of her character. In “The Shot”, Hughes constructs an image of Plath as irrational and destructive, accusingly asserting that “Your worship needed a god / Where it lacked one, it found one”. The conflict between the personal pronouns is perhaps most overt in “Your Paris”, where he juxtaposes the concepts of “Your Paris” and “My Paris” to highlight the conflicting perspectives inherent within their relationship and Plath’s character. In allowing “your” to dominate the poem, Hughes is perhaps suggesting that Plath monopolised both their Parisian holiday and their relationship. However, through so harshly describing Plath, Hughes to a certain extent alienates the responder. The utilisation of contrasting personal pronouns conveys the alienation between Plath’s and Hughes’ perspectives, while enforcing his…

    • 1233 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Sylvia Plath Research Paper

    • 4554 Words
    • 19 Pages

    Plath 's poetry is full of symbols and allusions cryptic to those unfamiliar with her biography, so it is necessary to begin any analysis of her work with a brief account of her life. Sylvia Plath was born on October 27, 1932 near Boston and for much of her childhood lived near the sea, which finds its way into many of her poetic images (Barnard 14). Her father, Otto Emil Plath, was an immigrant from Germany and her mother, Aurelia Schober, a second generation Austrian American (Barnard 13). Allusions to her German heritage and to World War Two era Europe abound in her work.…

    • 4554 Words
    • 19 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Conflicting Perspectives

    • 576 Words
    • 3 Pages

    To what extent does this statement relate to your study of at least one of Hughes’ poems and one related text of your own choosing?…

    • 576 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The repetition of “I’ve known rivers” at the beginning and “My soul has grown deep like the rivers” at the middle and end, gives the poem the feeling of a sermon or spiritual, in keeping with Hughes’ use of folk…

    • 738 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Conflicting Perspectives

    • 2068 Words
    • 9 Pages

    The notion of truth being a defined reasoning and represented as a one sided argument is unmistakably how most audiences visualize it. The concept cannot be interpreted in such close mindedness, as to tell the truth is to speak what appears “truthful” to “you”. Conflicting perspectives arise when the visualization of how feasible or veracious something is differs between individuals. The controversy surrounding Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath, contentious poets of the twenty first century portray their own reality through their semi-confessional poetry. Sylvia Plath frequently extends her cereal obsession with her dead father as well as committing a certain bias declaration about past events to her poetry. If an audience were to read just Plath’s semi-autobiographical work the bell jar or even her late published work, Ariel they would quickly succumb to the confessional ‘finger pointing’ at Hughes and her father that she is notoriously regarded for. Hughes’ work, in contrast often speaks of the good times in their passionate relationship enticing less cynicism and promoting his protagonist-like character. Hughes’ “Fulbright Scholars”, for example has a much lighter tone with a series of guesses and faded recollection of enjoyable excitement confided in his first meeting with Plath. Condescending to Plath’s degenerative works like “the rabbit catcher” or “the jailer”, freckled with darkness and hatred. Without implication of Hughes’ goodness, he frequently took an objective stance in his work; “the minotaur” and “Sam” can both be interpreted as Hughes talking himself out of situation by exaggerating his veracity almost to a level of ‘whininess’. Reading about the two scholars, one would be lead to believe that they communicated to each other more through their poetry, expressing deeper emotions lyrically then they did conversely. The often strongly differing…

    • 2068 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Sylvia Plath was a gifted writer, poet and verbal artist whose personal anguish and torment visibly manifested itself in her work. Much of her angst stems from her warped relationship with her father. Other factors that influenced her works were her strained views of human sexuality, her sado-masochistic tendencies, self-hatred and her traditional upbringing. She was labeled as a confessional poet and biographical and historical material is absolutely necessary to understand her work.…

    • 2137 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays